Author Archives: davidsberry

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About davidsberry

Local ex-councillor, tour guide and database designer. Keen on wildlife, history, boats and music. Retired in 2017.

Chiels That Winna Ding?

Posted on July 29, 2016 by davidsberry

In the midst of a Twitter storm this week, I realised that the bulk of the 3,000+ responses to a chart I published were from unionists, almost all of whom appeared to insist that the only debate that could be … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Not Brexit; Engleave

Posted on July 18, 2016 by davidsberry

Three weeks on and the reverberations of June 23rd continue to cloud any clarity of the political future for Britain. The now headless Brexiter movement has slid from media view and left a new government under Theresa May to sort … Continue reading →

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Why Bait the Bear?

Posted on July 10, 2016 by davidsberry

A recent NATO summit in Warsaw agreed to deploy four multi-national battalions (from USA, UK, Germany and Canada) to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The British are to be in overall charge and the contingent is to consist of a … Continue reading →

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Foreignacy

Posted on July 4, 2016 by davidsberry

Opinionated though it may be, it’s not often that this blog has the temerity to launch a new word into the already crowded seas of English vocabulary. But the second decade of the 21st century, the world appears to be … Continue reading →

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This Scuppered Isle

Posted on June 26, 2016 by davidsberry

Three days on and the enormity of what happened on June 23rd still has not registered in all its implications either with me or the population at large. The jubilation shown by Brexiteers at counting stations appears to have evaporated … Continue reading →

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Toys Out the Pram; Bums Oot the Windae

Posted on June 24, 2016 by davidsberry

I join over 15m voters in their varied disappointment on waking this morning to discover that Britain has voted to leave the EU. That’s about as sober a statement as I can manage right now. Because I am bealing, furious, … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

Quis Docebit ipsos Doctores?

Posted on June 12, 2016 by davidsberry

Actually, at school, I hated Latin. The relevance of dead languages was even less clear to me than that of calculus. But I was blessed with teachers who knew how to ignite thrawn teenage imagination and instill a heady mix … Continue reading →

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Trump des Willens?

Posted on June 10, 2016 by davidsberry

By James Kirchick, Washington Post, 9th June 2016 Republican leaders who support Trump are modern-day Neville Chamberlains With the rise of Trump, the party obsessed with the lessons of appeasement is now replicating his same exact mistakes. American conservatives are … Continue reading →

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Brexit is an empire-era trick. Only the radical case for Europe makes sense – in The Guardian

Posted on June 1, 2016 by davidsberry

Originally posted on Yanis Varoufakis:
‘Sovereignty is dear to our hearts. We reject the notion that Britain must settle for diminished sovereignty as the price of global influence.’  Referendums can throw up some odd bedfellows. But there is nothing odd…

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And the First Shall Be Last

Posted on May 24, 2016 by davidsberry

Lunchtime today something of a bombshell landed in East Lothian Council with First Edinburgh’s peremptory announcement that they were cutting one fifth of all their services as of August this year. More specifically, they are pulling out of East Lothian … Continue reading →

Posted in Commerce, Transport | Tagged | 2 Comments